“Holland Keene,” they introduced themself, perhaps unnecessarily. At this point Holland seemed fairly well-known within the school. They took a bite of the spinach-ricotta crepe, which they realized was also seasoned with pine nuts and thyme. Holland was preoccupied enough with eating that they didn’t realize Sara was staring at them until she asked her question.

Holland had thought that Gendergate (a title they had jokingly given the argument with Lucien and the ensuing fallout; it wasn’t so much a Nixon-esque failed conspiracy as it was an event and its natural consequences, but Holland thought the name was hilarious) was over. Lucien has gotten in trouble with the administration as much as he deserved. Several of the Lyras had helped Holland prove a point to the upperclassman. Some of Holland’s closer friends had gone out of their way to make Lucien’s life unpleasant for a bit, but that was over as far as Holland knew. There had been some kind of incident with Lucien and Camilla Baird as well, although Holland was fairly certain that had to be unrelated to Gendergate because they didn’t know Camilla well enough for the Cetus to want to come to their defense.

As with all scandals, facts were revealed and people naturally lost interest over time. Holland still wanted evidence that Lucien had changed his behavior and was now using their correct pronouns, which had not been sufficiently proved to them yet. An apology would be a nice gesture, but Holland neither expected nor needed one; impact was more important than intent.

“Yes,” Holland said frankly. They had another bite of crepe and swallowed. “Well, probably, depending on who you heard it from.” Some students couldn’t be trusted to accurately report a piece of gossip, either intentionally (Heather Bartel) or because they didn’t actually know the facts (Steven Rhines).

They were approaching the part of the conversation where they had to give the Gender Talk. Holland hoped that eventually society would have enough of a working knowledge of nonbinary identities that they wouldn’t have to explain this every time, but that seemed like a long way off. In the meantime Holland was considering having explanatory business cards drawn up. It was easier when the person asking was younger and genuinely curious, though.

“Lucien has spent the last five years refusing to use my pronouns, which are they/them, and I corrected him. He decided to be rude and intolerant instead of just acknowledging he’d been wrong and fixing it. So I told Counselor Tennant.” Holland paused. “And some of my friends decided to get back at him in other ways, but that wasn’t me. I didn’t ask them to do anything.”

“Yes!,” she responded excitedly to the person that had taken a seat besides her and Sara recognized as an Older Lyra. The first-year didn't know much about them, but she had heard all about a Big... more

Sara was in awe with the older student sitting next to her. It was a lot for the eleven-year old to take in during breakfast, but the Lyra nodded in agreement trying to seem cool. If she was honest,... more

Holland was expecting the Spanish Inquisition about their gender. Even well-intentioned underclasspeople, like Marley, asked a lot of questions because they’d never had the concept of non-binary... more